Free The Billionaire's Elusive Lover by Elizabeth Lennox Page B

that little factoid and wanted to find a small corner to hide out in. She sipped her wine and looked around, searching out the one man she’d been avoiding for a week. He must have gotten her phone number from Edna because he’d left her several messages the first few days after their most recent encounter but then she hadn’t heard anything. She’d hoped he’d finally given up on her but something told her that wasn’t the case. She suspected he was just biding his time. Sort of like a spider waiting for the bug to fly into his web. “I’m sure he’s still wasting something,” she grumbled.
     
    “I’m sure he does, but then don’t we all? But Mr. Dionysius isn’t really in the same league, is he? Men like him live in a whole different world than we do.”
     
    Helen looked around at his beautiful home. “Obviously. And these two worlds should stay well apart from each other,” she said and took his hand to lead him over to the patio.
     
    Jim was about to grab a plate at the buffet table when one of his co-workers found him. They were engaged in a lively conversation about the acquisition and their excitement that it was finally over. Jim introduced her to several of his co-workers, all of whom were very nice and instantly incorporated her into their conversations as if she were one of them.
     
    Helen had been at the party for perhaps an hour when she finally started to relax. She sipped her wine and smiled at all of Jim’s co-workers and their significant others when she started to see Jim’s eyes stray to the right several times. Helen followed his eyes in that direction and caught a pretty blond waitress glancing back at him.
     
    When Jim realized that he’d been caught, Helen laughed softly, not taking offense at his distraction since she’d already realized that she wasn’t attracted to Jim in that way either. “She’s pretty,” she said with an encouraging smile.
     
    “Yes, well,” he cleared his throat, a blush creeping up his neck and he adjusted his tie slightly. “Let’s go say hello to my direct boss. He’s over there. Then we can relax and grab something to eat.”
     
    Helen looked in the direction he’d indicated quickly to determine which boss Jim was referring to and, when it wasn’t Alec, she relaxed. Glancing in the opposite direction she searched for the pretty blond waitress, catching the other woman’s eye. Initially the waitress looked away, embarrassed but Helen already had a mind to do something about this situation. Jim was a very nice man. She wasn’t really interested in him as anything more than a friend but the fact that he was being an absolute gentleman and ignoring the blond warmed her heart. She followed Jim and chatted for several more minutes before excusing herself from the group.
     
    She made her way to the bathroom and washed her hands, then searched out the kitchen, determined to find the waitress and find out what was going on. She lucked out and found the woman setting up another tray of creative and delicious smelling appetizers. “Good evening,” Helen said, sliding up to the blond and popping one of the appetizers into her mouth. “Oh, these are scrumptious,” she said as a way to open the conversation. “Did you help make them?”
     
    The blond looked down, not daring to look into Helen’s eyes. “I’m just here doing the serving, ma’am. But I’d be happy to bring you more if you’d like.” The waitress said to the tray.
     
    “Jim’s a very nice man.” Helen said.
     
    The woman stiffened, froze for a long moment before setting the appetizers onto the tray more quickly. “Your boyfriend is an attractive guest.”
     
    “Don’t worry. He’s not my boyfriend. He’s just a friend. What’s your name?”
     
    That admission perked the woman up for a moment, but then she looked around warily at the other workers, obviously afraid her supervisor would catch her talking to a guest. “I’m Amanda,” she said and finished the